This is my take on a Poco song from 1976 . Please give it a listen. I find it insanely catchy. It's about a woman called Rose Dunn in the old west.
Roll along, roll on
Rose of Cimarron
Dusty days are gone
Rose of Cimarron
Rose stood there staring out of her window, She was wearing a long black dress and was tightly corseted. She wasn't expecting any visitors, but liked to look presentable. Just in case.
Shadows touch the sand and
Look to see who's standin'
Waitin' at your window
Watchin', will they ever show?
Most of the the men she knew and loved her were dead now. She couldn't help thinking on those days of excitement. She was loved, she was needed. Everyone wants to feel needed, don't they?
Can you hear them callin'?
You know they have fallen
On campfires cold and dark
That never see a spark burn bright
The sun was setting now. Rose recalled how it had all started. When she ran with George "Bittercreek" Newcomb. The man she loved.
The man she lost.
His name was Ronny Dunn. He lived on a farm with his father, mother and two older brothers. Being the smallest, the runt of the litter he was useless at the heavy farm work. He was left in the care of his mother. There he learned to wash,cook, clean and tend to her brothers wounds.
When their father died the older brothers struggled to keep the farm going. Later that year mother caught a fever, Ronny tended to her devotedly until she passed in her sleep.
Ronny now stayed in the house and did all of the housework. He overheard his brothers talk as she served a poor meal of barley and vegetable stew. There was very little food left and the crops were stunted.
"We can't ask that of him he's a man."
"Have you seen him, he was wearing ma's old apron when I came in. I'm tellin ya, He'll do it."
His brother explained they were broke and were going to starve. They had an idea to hold up the stage coach, but needed a distraction.
They knew the driver would never stop for a man due to fear of robbery. But a woman?
Ronny wore his ma's best dark blue blouse and grey skirt. He wrapped himself in a shawl and put on her best bonnet. her brothers were impressed. He looked convincing.
What they didn't know was that underneath Ronny was wearing his mother corset,stockings, petticoats and bloomers. Even his small feet were able to fit in her Sunday best heeled ankle boots.
The hold up went without a hitch and the now much richer family went on the run. The brother asked Ronny to change before they left. He refused and said.
"I'm Rose now, I'm never going back to being Ronny."
The family hooked up with George "Bittercreek" Newcomb. Newcomb was riding with the Wild Bunch gang led by famous outlaw Bill Doolin. Rose's brothers saw Newcomb was falling in love and took Newcomb aside to explain to him she was not all she seemed.
"Don't matter none to me, all I see is a woman." was his reply.
Rose was infatuated with her "Georgie", she made supply runs into town since he couldn't because he was a wanted man.
Comin' to you only
You're the one they turned to
The only one they knew who'd do
All her best to be around
When the chips were down
On September 1, 1893, a posse of U.S. Marshals caught the Wild Bunch gang in Ingalls. The Battle of Ingalls was a bloody shootout. Newcomb was badly wounded in the street. Rose ran from the "Pierce Hotel" to her man with with two belts of ammunition and a Winchester rifle. She shot the rifle at the marshals while Newcomb reloaded his revolvers. Newcomb and Rose escaped.
Rose Dunn hid out with the wounded gang members for at least two months, nursing the men back to health.
Roll along, roll on
Rose of Cimarron
Dusty days are gone
Rose of Cimarron
Shadows touch the sand and
Look to see who's standin'
Waitin' at your window
Watchin', will they ever show?
Newcomb was worth $5,000 in bounty, Dead or alive. Rose's brothers had turned from crime an became bounty hunters.
As Rose waited for her Gorgie to arrive, her brothers shot and killed Newcomb as he and a fellow outlaw dismounted
Rose wore black and wept for days.
Roll along, roll on
Rose of Cimarron
Dusty days are gone
Rose of Cimarron
After the killing of "Bittercreek" Newcomb, Rose Dunn was accused of setting him up . Rose loved Newcomb and her brothers used that love to ambush him and pick up the reward. Her brothers defended her, saying she had no knowledge of their intentions. She was never prosecuted for her involvement with the gang.
Later Rose married a local politician named Charles Albert Noble and lived the remainder of her life as a respectable citizen. She died at the age of 76 in Washington.
She never forgot her first love Georgie and her life as an outlaw
Hearts like yours belong
Following the dawn
Wrapped up in a song
Rose of Cimarron
